These aren't "brands". You can't trust that the random character "brands" on Amazon like SNOALK, TOOALQ, lipr or whatever are even the same from shipment to shipment. Model names and numbers are meaningless here. It's all just a random lottery.
Just beware that an awful lot of "silicone" cabling coming from China is actually overplasticized PVC, particular cabling used in instrument probes. It feels like silicone until it starts getting stiff while at the same time outgassing plasticizer like crazy, or you touch it with a soldering iron or similar. I would expect most or even all of the cat-ran-across-the-keyboard Amazon brands to be overplasticized PVC, not silicone (hint: Use the Knockoff plugin for Chromefox, https://github.com/Shpigford/knockoff, which will warn you for stuff that's sold on Temu West, aka.Amazon, it's warning on almost all of the pseudo-brands listed in the article).
I've also run into way too much cabling that's CCA or even CCS. Garbage on the outside, garbage on the inside.
Despite the point in my comment about power cable extensions coverings becoming hard through the lack of plasticizers, I confirm your point about overplasticized PVC in instrument cables.
I have a lot of instrument leads that I thought were silicone only to find that after a year or so they've gone hard. So much so that new unpacked ones can no longer be easily straightened (the kinks remain unless one heats the cable up and then straightens them).
Despite availability issues,the problem is trying to determine what's real silicone and what's not.
I cannot understand why silicone rubber is not more commonly available for cable insulation. It is so much better than much of the badly plasticized PVC and other plastics that are now used.
What's made this situation worse is that it seems that worry over plasticizers and health etc. has lead to a reduction in the amount being used in cables. I have some power extenstion cables whose jackets have gone so hard that I can no longer coil them effectively — even though I take care the coiled cable still ends up a tangled mess.
Even if silicone jacketing is more expensive it's so good I'd pay extra. Trouble is it's not normally available on products found at the local hardware shop.
> I cannot understand why silicone rubber is not more commonly available for cable insulation
Silicone is more flexible and high-temperature resistant, but it does have a major downside of being very easy to cut and strip. That's not great either, especially for power applications where short circuits are a concern.
Unless you're running cables inside an oven just buy SOOW aka EPDM cables. They are the recognized standard for flexible, rugged cable assemblies resistant to just about everything. Silicone rubber is only used in very special cases because it's not as UV resistant or mechanically resilient.
This article recommending scrabble letter brands seems sketchy.
Anker offers lovely soft silicone sheathed USB-C cables, in black or white and many lengths. They perform for data and do not get stiff or discolor. Our office specifies these unless TB4+ is required.
You purchase the ones labeled Anker?... They say Anker on the box and the cable... I don't think the supply chain is an issue as long as you get the intended product
Looks like list almost half not in the EU and half in, but missing quite a lot of EU countries.
Anker themselves say they "promise that all the products purchased through our Authorized Retailers or Distributors and Online Channels are genuine" but the link to who those are is gone apparently.
If you purchase from the official seller on Amazon, you're highly unlikely to get a counterfeit unless someone committed return fraud. I think platforms that destroy returns aren't susceptible though.
Pretty sure for anyone outside North America the shipping absolutely kills the value proposition nowadays.
Last time I checked to replace my deskmat both it and the cables were about as much for shipping as for the items themselves. And taxes on top of that.
That, for example, turns a 20 cad cable, already on the pricey side into a 40+ cad one.
I do not know if there are any officials redistributors in other continents, but I don't think there are.
Doesn't suit OPs demands as power only, but moved most my USB-C power cables to Anker Nano recently. They sound like described, lovely. Super flexible, don't tangle, nice weight to them - very well built. Nicest cables I've ever owned and an upgrade from prior Anker ones.
I like the Ikea SITTBRUNN cable series, they feel great, are inexpensive and actually come with a technical specification.
The only drawbacks I've found are:
* It's 480 Mbps cables, so for charging and occasional transferrers.
* They don't have a huge selection of lengths and colors.
My CPU load goes through the roof after a minute on that page. Chrome 154.0.8037.0 on Linux. WTF does a cable review need to do that works my CPU so hard?
I bought some of the official Pinecil silicone cables but haven't tried burning them yet. Has anyone tried that? I think they're USB2 but rated (well, advertised) for 100W so they're great for the Pinecil.
Almost seems like it’d be easier to spend a couple weeks in Shenzhen getting cables made to your specifications rather than testing everything on the market.
this is awesome, I've also been looking for these kinds of cables more than the "braided" cables which are stiff and tend to eventually take some kind of shape and not straighten back
You are right, they are only really useful for charging (though 240w - beasts) or keyboards. I’ve given up on trying to find silicone cables for data transfer and just buy thunderbolt which are typically rubber (Apple ones are braided these days, but it’s a very tight braid).
I've also run into way too much cabling that's CCA or even CCS. Garbage on the outside, garbage on the inside.
Despite the point in my comment about power cable extensions coverings becoming hard through the lack of plasticizers, I confirm your point about overplasticized PVC in instrument cables.
I have a lot of instrument leads that I thought were silicone only to find that after a year or so they've gone hard. So much so that new unpacked ones can no longer be easily straightened (the kinks remain unless one heats the cable up and then straightens them).
Despite availability issues,the problem is trying to determine what's real silicone and what's not.
le me: see README, spot slop tells, scroll to the files, see CLAUDE.md
Yeah I'd love to see a stopslop extension for Github, warning me if the usual suspects of slop bullshit are present.
What's made this situation worse is that it seems that worry over plasticizers and health etc. has lead to a reduction in the amount being used in cables. I have some power extenstion cables whose jackets have gone so hard that I can no longer coil them effectively — even though I take care the coiled cable still ends up a tangled mess.
Even if silicone jacketing is more expensive it's so good I'd pay extra. Trouble is it's not normally available on products found at the local hardware shop.
Silicone is more flexible and high-temperature resistant, but it does have a major downside of being very easy to cut and strip. That's not great either, especially for power applications where short circuits are a concern.
Anker offers lovely soft silicone sheathed USB-C cables, in black or white and many lengths. They perform for data and do not get stiff or discolor. Our office specifies these unless TB4+ is required.
https://www.anker.com/eu-en/verify
https://cairovolt.com/en/blog/how-to-identify-original-anker
I love how the path includes eu-en but then the list of countries where this is actually used:
> Europe: Turkey, Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Serbia, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Azerbaijan
Looks like list almost half not in the EU and half in, but missing quite a lot of EU countries.
Anker themselves say they "promise that all the products purchased through our Authorized Retailers or Distributors and Online Channels are genuine" but the link to who those are is gone apparently.
Not saying that's easy considering their stock issues. Maybe it's better now.
The only drawbacks I've found are: * It's 480 Mbps cables, so for charging and occasional transferrers. * They don't have a huge selection of lengths and colors.
I bought some of the official Pinecil silicone cables but haven't tried burning them yet. Has anyone tried that? I think they're USB2 but rated (well, advertised) for 100W so they're great for the Pinecil.
Luckily my soldering iron did.
So no, it appears that "chubby cables" aren't the best.